After surgery on a patient, durable surgical instruments may generally be replaced, if inexpensive, or sterilized and repaired for reuse in another surgical procedure, if expensive. For example, a cutting blade of a metal scalpel or surgical knife may become dull after completion of a surgery. Instead of repairing and sterilizing the dull scalpel, a hospital may replace it with a new metal scalpel. Generally manual surgical instruments are less expensive and may be subject to replacement than more automated surgical equipment used in surgery, such as a laparoscope for example.
To make the more expensive automated surgical equipment more attractive for use in more hospitals, it is desirable to reduce the maintenance and replacement costs of the more automated surgical equipment after surgery.